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In November 2002, Vamos Adelante set up Informatica Amigos (formerly known as Proyecto 4'4), a computer school for disabled students in Guatemala City (Zone 6). Each year, between 30-60 students go through the school's courses on IT skills and basic literacy and numeracy. Informatica Amigos tries to prepare its students for a successful career and has already placed a small number of them in permanent jobs in the city. It also offers a wide range of other related activities for the disabled community, including motivational trainings, painting, singing and dance classes.
Vamos Adelante finances high school and university scholarships for several Informatica Amigos students, and also helps with transportation and food costs for the poorest ones.
Through its school, Vamos Adelante has established a large, informal network of disability projects in all of Guatemala, and coordinates the distribution of wheelchairs to poor people throughout the country. In 2004, the foundation passed out more than 300 free wheelchairs. We have also helped to provide prosthetics to individuals who were previously not able to afford them.
An example of our work on disability issues:
- In July 2004, Vamos Adelante distributed more than 144 free wheelchairs at a special event in Guatemala's capital city. After spending months on the identification of needy individuals, we coordinated a get-together of all recipients in the presence of Wendy Berger, Guatemala's first lady, and our friends at the Wheelchair Foundation, American Airlines' Airline Ambassadors, and the local Rotary Club. Participants traveled to the event from dozens of regions across the country, some being carried by their families or pushed in wheelbarrows for part of the journey.
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